Historical artifact: 汉字组字扑克 (Chinese character combination poker)

March 27, 2024 by Jason Li

A view of the box package for 汉字组字扑克 (Chinese character combination poker) from the top. The box is green and has various designs combining typography and illustrated playing cards.

Some photos of cards, showing how they might be combined by placing the cards next to or on top of one another.

I purchased this children’s educational card game in Penang, Malaysia in 2023. Its name is 汉字组字扑克, which roughly translates to “Chinese character combination poker.” This box set did not come with any instructions, but its name and design suggests it’s a kind of “扑克 [poker]” game where cards (with Chinese characters/radicals written on them) are grouped together into Chinese characters for points (in the vein of Scrabble).

It’s very likely that this is a game of the same name that was patented in 1986 China by 靳天运. Both the 1986 patent and the box set I got share the same name (汉字组字扑克), number of cards (120), and card graphic design (Chinese characters in two corners with an animal drawing in the middle). You can download a PDF scan of the patent on Google Patents, which has includes a description of and the instructions for the game. Here is, for example, the final page of the patent, which is titled 说明书附图 (instructions diagram):

A hand-drawn diagram showing five steps in playing this game (it's not super clear because there are no labels).

I wanted to share my photos and research findings here to create a record of this game for future historians, educators, game designers and patent enthusiasts. There are many card games like this in China today (魔法汉字 seems to be the most popular example at the time of writing), but it’s unclear whether any of them are inspired or derived from this 1980s edition. Nevertheless, since this is a rare find as I did not find any other information online about this game.

Below I’ve placed more photos showing what’s on and inside the box, followed by a transcription of any text found on the packaging or on the cards.

Photos

Another view of the box from the top, but showing a different angle that shows off more of the text that's printed on the box.

The box lid has been opened, revealing, two stacks of cards, and a little slogan about toys being angels for children above a flowery motif.

A zoomed out view showing the half empty box, and various cards from the pack featuring lots of different animals drawn in a style that's probably inspired by classic Chinese illustrations.

More photos of cards, this time showing that the backs of the cards display a tiled black and white fish pattern.

An angled close up of the previous photo.

Transcribed text

Front of the box

汉字 [Chinese character]
组字扑克 [character combination poker]
中国制造 [made in China]

新型智力玩具 [New style intelligence toy]
HANZI [pinyin for 汉字]
ZUZIPUKE [pinyin for 组字扑克]
组 [combine]
MADEINCHINA

Sides of the box

KAIFAZHILI [pinyin for 开发智力]
开发智力增强思维 [develop intelligence, strengthen thinking]
ZENGQIANGSIWEI [pinyin for 增强思维]
河北省平乡县育才智力玩具工厂出品 [produced by Yucai Intelligent Toy Factory, Pingxiang County, Hebei Province]

Inside box with the lid opened

玩具是儿童的天使 [toys are angels for children]

Examples of cards

Upper left & bottom right: 欠 [owe, lack]
Middle animal label: 虹鳟 [rainbow trout]

Upper left & bottom right: 口 [mouth, opening]
Middle animal label: 松鸡 [grouse]

Upper left & bottom right: 且 [and, moreover, yet]
Middle animal label: 狮 [lion]

Final note (and mystery)

There are 120 cards in total and no two cards are the same. But there’s also an additional blank piece of paper that’s the same size as the cards with a black frame in the middle the number eight stamped in a corner in red.

Appendix: character combination poker today

This is a screenshot of the image search results for 组字扑克 (character combination poker) on Baidu today:

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